Source-backed crawler reference
ChatGPT-User Robots.txt Checker
ChatGPT-User is OpenAI's token for user-initiated ChatGPT and Custom GPT requests. It is different from automatic search discovery and GPTBot model-related crawling.
Last reviewed: for page guidance. Source verified: .
User agent
The robots.txt user-agent token to test is ChatGPT-User. Use this exact token when checking allow and block rules for ChatGPT-User.
User-agent: ChatGPT-User
What ChatGPT-User is used for
Use this reference when reviewing requests that may be triggered by a user action. OpenAI documents this separately from its automatic crawler tokens.
OpenAI states ChatGPT-User is not an automatic web crawler and is not used to determine whether content appears in Search.
Search indexing, AI training, AI retrieval, shopping, or other use
Crawler policy surface. Review its documented purpose separately from unrelated search, training, retrieval, and dataset crawlers.
Impact on crawling, indexing, AI use, or retrieval
Robots.txt behavior for user-triggered requests can differ from ordinary crawler policy. Treat ChatGPT-User as a separate retrieval surface and verify current OpenAI documentation before relying on it.
A user-triggered request is different from systematic search discovery or model-training crawling.
OAI-SearchBot is used for OpenAI search discovery. GPTBot is documented separately for model training, and ChatGPT-User is used for user-initiated requests. A site can therefore allow search discovery while making a different policy decision about training.
How to allow ChatGPT-User
Add an allow rule when this crawler should be permitted to request public pages. Test the deployed robots.txt file on the exact URL path, because a homepage allow can coexist with deeper disallow rules.
User-agent: ChatGPT-User Allow: / User-agent: * Allow: /
What allowing ChatGPT-User enables
Allowing ChatGPT-User means the deployed robots.txt policy does not block the ChatGPT-User token on matching public paths. It does not guarantee a visit, indexing, inclusion, ranking, training, or citation.
How to block ChatGPT-User
Add a block rule only when the policy intent is to restrict this crawler. Blocking is a public directive for compliant crawlers, not authentication and not a ranking control.
User-agent: ChatGPT-User Disallow: / User-agent: * Allow: /
What blocking ChatGPT-User affects and does not affect
Blocking ChatGPT-User asks compliant ChatGPT-User requests not to fetch matching paths. It does not authenticate the page, remove it from indexes, or control other crawler tokens.
Common verification notes
- Check OpenAI documentation before assuming robots.txt applies to every user-triggered action.
- Review OAI-SearchBot when the concern is search discovery.
- Review GPTBot when the concern is model-related crawling.
ChatGPT-User verification and troubleshooting note
Verify ChatGPT-User with its official source, then test the final canonical URL and the exact path in robots.txt. Server logs can help confirm whether the crawler requested the page after policy changes.
How to interpret a robots.txt checker result
An allow result means the matched robots.txt directive does not block this compliant crawler on the tested path. It does not guarantee a visit, indexing, inclusion, ranking, or citation. A block is a public crawler directive, not authentication or access control.
Recommended action: Treat this as a user-request surface. OpenAI notes robots.txt may not apply to these user-initiated actions.
Official source
OpenAI documentation for ChatGPT-User
This page bases crawler role descriptions on the linked owner documentation and labels limitations where robots.txt cannot prove downstream product behavior.
See the AI Index Check methodology for verification, scoring, limitations, and correction policy.